The present invention relates to a finger fixing apparatus and, more particularly, to a finger fixing apparatus for fixing a finger when reading a fingerprint with a fingerprint authentication apparatus.
A human fingerprint is unique to each individual person. A fingerprint authentication apparatus is under development, which fetches the fingerprint as image data and compares the feature amount of the fetched image data with fingerprint feature amount data of a plurality of persons which are registered in advance, thereby authenticating the individual person. A fingerprint authentication apparatus of this type is generally constituted by a fingerprint read glass window formed in the base surface, and a scanner unit arranged below the base surface to read the fingerprint through the glass window. When a person to be authenticated places his fingertip on the glass window, the fingerprint image of the fingertip seen through the glass window is read by the scanner unit. A predetermined feature amount is extracted from the read image data, and is compared with the fingerprint feature amount data of each individual registered in advance. When the feature amount coincides with the fingerprint feature amount data, it is determined that the person to be authenticated is the right person, i.e., the registered authenticated person.
In the conventional case described however, due to limitations in cost and component arrangement, a large read window and a large readable region for the scanner unit cannot be ensured. For this reason, depending on how the finger of the person to be authenticated is placed, i.e., depending on where the finger is placed or in which direction the finger is placed, an effective fingerprint image cannot be picked up. Then, even if the person to be authenticated is the right person, he may be failed to be authenticated.